A BAND from York has shown a touch of brass in reaching the finals of a national competition.

York Railway Institute Band will be taking to the stage on Sunday in a bid to win their section at the National Brass Band Championships.

The 25-strong band qualified for the national final after finishing runners-up in their division at the regional heats in Darlington in March.

On Sunday at the Harrogate International Centre, they hope their rendition of Willow Pattern by Philip Harper will impress judges.

Trombonist Clive Marshall said: “It’s the first time we’ve reached the national final since 2001, so we’re all really excited.”

The National Brass Band Championships is divided into five divisions, ranging from championship status at the top to the fourth section at the bottom.

York Railway Institute Band is in the third section – but a win on Sunday will promote them to the next division.

Clive, who joined the band in the 1960s, said: “In the 1960s and through the 1970s and 1980s we were qualifying fairly regularly for the national finals and even achieved championship status in those years.

“But then we saw a decline in the band’s standard as we went through a phase when membership fell. But it has revived and we are starting to feel that we are beginning to climb again, which is really exciting.”

The band’s members, who range from the age of 13 to 75, have been rehearsing twice a week at the Railway Institute in Queen Street.